http://abna.ir/On 25 June 2013, the lower criminal court headed by a member of the ruling family, Shaikh Rashid Bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa, sentenced child Ali Faisal Alshofa (17 years old), a high school student, to 1 year in prison for insulting the king, Hamad Al-Khalifa, on Twitter. Ali Al Shofa was arrested in a house raid at dawn on 12 March 2013. He was kept in detention for two months pending investigation, until he was released on bail of BHD 100 on 8 May 2013 while still on trial. Ali was accused of posting an insulting tweeting using the account @alkawarahnews, which he denied relation with, and his lawyer Merfat Janahi submitted evidence that the account is still running by other persons. The BCHR again points to the blatant absence of any form of independent or fair judiciary system according to international standards; as the judge presiding in the case stems from the same family as the king, the subject of the lawsuit. Last month, on 15 May 2013, the court sentenced five other twitter users to one year imprisonment each, also on the charge of insulting the king on twitter. (Details on http://bahrainrights.org/en/node/6122). In total, more than 106 months of imprisonment were collectively delivered since June 2012 against twelve online users for charges related to freedom of expression on social network websites. Said Yousif AlMuhafdha, Head of Documentation and Monitoring at the BCHR and acting Vice President, has a case pending in court for disseminating false news on Twitter. He was acquitted by the court, but the public prosecution appealed the acquittal, and the trial will resume on 1 July 2013. Earlier this month, the BCHR reported the abduction and incommunicado detention of online user Jaffar Al-Demstani on 20 June 2013 for tweeting about the torture of his father, Ebrahim Al-Demstani. (Read more on http://bahrainrights.org/en/node/6188). The ongoing crackdown on online users and the use of the judicial system to limit their freedom of speech is in direct violation with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Based on the above information, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights demands that the Government of Bahrain: Immediately release all persons sentenced to prison for their online activities, as well as all other political detainees who are being held for practicing their fundamental rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, which are guaranteed by international law. Guarantee the basis of free trials and independence of the judicial system according to international standards. Drop all charges related to freedom of expression in cases that are currently ongoing in court. Withdraw all national and local laws that would restrict freedom of opinion and expression, or prevent the transmission of information.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Bahrain: High School Student Sentenced to One Year Imprisonment for a Tweet
In South Africa, Obama continues his focus on youth
President Obama speaks at the University of Johannesburg, his latest pitch to young people during his tour of Africa.
Workers and BDP members march in Istanbul to protest Lice clashes
Turkish public sector workers joined members of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) in a peaceful march through Istanbul's İstiklal Avenue to protest the killing of a demonstrator by the security forces in the southeastern Diyarbakır province yesterday. Clashes had broke out in Diyarbakır's Lice district between soldiers and demonstrating villagers who were denouncing the construction of a gendarmerie outpost.
The group held banners reading, "We don't want outposts but peace" and "Resist Lice, resist Gezi Park." BDP deputies Sırrı Süreyya Önder, who was also very active during the early Gezi Park protests, and Sabahat Tuncel also participated in the march.
Protestors also held posters of Medeni Yıldırım, the 18-year-old victim of the Lice clashes.
Peace won’t come this way
Önder said that the government was showing a lack of determination in the peace process. “Someone who wants peace does not waste time building outposts. Civilians expressing their outcry in a peaceful way were fired upon. All their wounds were on their back. Peace won’t come this way,” Önder said.
He also said that there were many parallelisms between the social demands of Gezi Park protesters and Kurdish people. The government should use this brutal incident as a reason to review its policies,” he added.
Tuncel also slammed the attempt of building outposts, saying that it reminded the Kurdish people of torture and death.
"The ruling Justice and Development party should remove the commander of the gendarmerie station and do what's right. You didn't understand Gezi Park, and if you don't understand Lice you will be unable to cope with the [peace] process," Tuncel said.
“All those who don’t come out into the streets will be accomplice of the massacre,” she added.
Turkish security forces had opened fire killing 18-year-old Medeni Yıldırım and wounding ten others during a demonstration against the construction of a new gendarmerie outpost in the Kayacik village.
The incident had raised huge outcry and fear that it could derail the ongoin peace process as the Interior Ministry commissioned four inspectors to investigate into the incident.
Egypt protest: Crowds gather for big anti-Morsi rally
Crowds are gathering in Cairo's Tahrir Square ahead of a mass rally to demand the resignation of Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
Thousands of people could be seen overnight milling in the square, focus of the protests which brought down his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak.
Sunday is the first anniversary of Mr Morsi's inauguration as president.
Tensions has been high ahead of the rally. At least three people, including a US citizen, died in unrest on Friday.
Washington has warned Americans not to travel to Egypt.
The UK urged its citizens to "avoid all demonstrations and large gatherings" while France said citizens should "limit movements to those strictly necessary".
Protesters are unhappy with the policies of the Islamist president and his Muslim Brotherhood allies.
Thousands of supporters of Mr Morsi, who was elected by a small margin, rallied in the capital on Saturday.
US President Barack Obama has said America is "looking with concern" at the situation.
Obama appeal
Opposition activists say more than 22 million people have signed a petition seeking a snap election. They have urged the signatories to come out on Tahrir on Sunday.
Flags and tents form a base camp on the square from where protesters plan to march President Morsi's office.
Amr Riad, 26, told Reuters news agency: "We're peaceful but if those who come at us are violent we'll defend ourselves."
Speaking in South Africa, Mr Obama urged "all parties to make sure they are not engaging in violence and that police and military are showing appropriate restraint".
"We would like to see the opposition and President Morsi engage in a more constructive conversation about [how] to move their country forward," he said.
Reports say that Cairo International Airport has been unusually busy as both expatriates and Egyptians leave the country.
Bloodshed
On Friday, US national Andrew Pochter and another man were killed in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria as protesters stormed an office of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Mr Pochter, who was in the country to teach English to children and improve his own Arabic, was killed apparently while using a mobile phone to take pictures.
His family said in a statement that he had been stabbed by a protester while observing demonstrations.
The other fatality in Alexandria on Friday was an Egyptian man who was shot dead, according to medical sources.
Another man, said to be a journalist, was killed by an explosion in Port Said and five other people were injured.
President Morsi earlier this week offered a dialogue - a move rejected by his opponents.
Mr Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood, became Egypt's first Islamist president on 30 June 2012, after winning an election considered free and fair.
His first year as president has been marred by constant political unrest and a sinking economy.
Middle-class rage sparks protest movements in Turkey, Brazil, Bulgaria and beyond
By Anthony Faiola and Paula Moura
As protests raged in Turkey and were set to explode in distant Brazil, Asen Genov sat in his office in Bulgaria’s capital on the cloudy morning of June 14, about to strike the computer key that would spark a Bulgarian Spring.
Only months earlier, public outrage over high electricity bills in the country had brought down a previous government, but Genov saw more reason for anger when the new administration tapped a shadowy media mogul to head the national security service. Furious, Genov posted a Facebook event calling for a protest in Sofia, the nation’s capital, though he was dubious about turnout for a demonstration focused not on pocketbooks but on corruption and cronyism in government.
“We made bets on how many would come. I thought maybe 500,” said Genov, a 44-year-old who helps run a fact-checking Web site.
But as he arrived in Sofia’s Independence Square, people were streaming in by the thousands, as they have every day since, with the snowballing protests aiming to topple the government.
“We are all linked together, Bulgaria, Turkey, Brazil. We are tweeting in English so we can understand each other, and supporting each other on other social media,” said Iveta Cherneva, a 29-year-old author in Sofia, who was one of the many people protesting for the first time. “We are fighting for different reasons, but we all want our governments to finally work for us. We are inspiring each other.”
Around the globe, this is the summer of middle-class discontent, particularly in the developing world. From Istanbul to Rio de Janeiro, from Bulgaria to Bosnia, the pent-up frustrations of an engaged citizenry are being triggered by a series of seemingly disparate events.
Government development of a park in Turkey has erupted into broad unrest over freedom of expression in a society that, under a devout and increasingly authoritarian leader, is witnessing the encroaching power of Islam. A hike in bus fares in Brazil, meanwhile, has touched off an uproar over official waste, corruption and police brutality. But what do they have in common? One small incident has ignited the fuse in societies that, linked by social media and years of improved living standards across the developing world, are now demanding more from their democracies and governments.
In the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, thousands of furious residents across ethnic lines united on the streets this month, at one point blockading lawmakers inside parliament for 14 hours to protest government ineptitude in clearing a massive backlog of unregistered newborns. Public anger erupted after a Facebook posting — about a 3-month-old baby whose trip to Germany for a lifesaving transplant had been delayed by the backlog — went viral.
Thousands of protesters, including an outpouring of middle-class citizens, are expected Sunday in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. They return to the touchstone plaza of the Arab Spring in a nation that exchanged a dictator for what many Egyptians now see as a new government unwilling or unable to fix a corrupt bureaucracy and inefficient economy.
Indeed, on the heels of the Arab Spring, Spain’s “indignados” and the U.S. Occupy movement, some observers see a new class of protest emerging among the global citizenry. If the 1960s were about breaking cultural norms and protesting foreign wars, and the 1990s about railing against globalization, then the 2010s are about a clamor for responsive government, as well as social and economic freedom.
“These are a group of people who are better educated and more connected through technology,” said Robin Niblett, director of Chatham House, the London-based think tank. “In parts of the developing world, this is a new middle class, where the definition of success is not survival. It’s about quality of life, about future opportunity and freedom of expression.”
Solidarity in Brazil
Cecilia Siqueira de Oliveira, a 33-year-old design student living in the teeming Brazilian metropolis of Sao Paulo, had never seen herself as a street protester. Yet she found herself gripped by news this month of the uprising in Turkey. She was especially touched by a photo she’d seen from faraway Istanbul, of a man calmly playing the piano amid a huge throng of agitated demonstrators.
Posting the photo on her Facebook page, she wrote, “Wouldn’t it be good if Brazilians did that?”
A few days later, Brazil was on its feet.
A series of protests were playing out on Paulista Avenue, one block from her two-bedroom apartment. What was originally a movement against high bus fares was morphing into mass demonstrations against ingrained corruption, shoddy public services, high taxes and rising inflation.
Like other Brazilians, Oliveira had been disgusted by recurring political corruption scandals, a lackluster transit system and poor public services. She also thought the current and past governments had exaggerated the improvements in Brazilian lifestyles during a now-ebbing era of high growth. What burned her most, though, were the images of violence she was witnessing on television, with riot police firing rubber bullets and gas canisters at the crowds — a response that brought only more demonstrators out.
Finally, on June 17, she decided to join the hordes that were filling the streets.
“There were all kinds of people — the suits, the elderly, young people, families with children,” Oliveira said. As she marched, she recalled how emotional she felt watching people throwing shredded paper from their windows and turning their lights on and off as a sign of solidarity with the protesters below.
Three days later, more than 1 million Brazilians were on the streets of cities across the country. In the past, she and her friends had commiserated about how the only things that brought Brazilians together were soccer and Carnival. That had clearly changed.
“People realized it was worth going into the streets,” Oliveira said. “It’s incredible that in a country mad about soccer, that will host the World Cup, people are not talking about matches on social media. They are discussing politics and economics.”
Empowerment in Turkey
Serkan Zihli, a 32-year-old public relations consultant for an array of glamorous Istanbul art galleries and fashion designers, had just landed from a Mediterranean vacation when his smartphone lit up. “Get to Gezi Park,” said the text from a friend. “They’re coming.”
For months, Zihli had been part of a group of activists seeking to block a government plan to mow down the park and build a shopping mall in the only green space left in Taksim, a nightlife district in the glittering metropolis that literally straddles East and West. But this was not just about protecting trees.
Turkey had seen years of surging economic growth, but a growing number of middle-class Turkish citizens thought it had produced willy-nilly construction that came with zero thought to urban planning, as well as backroom deals with untold levels of graft. Taking a cue from the Occupy movements, protesters entered Gezi Park with tents, intent on blocking the bulldozers.
The fight was already emerging as a bigger symbol for secular Turks who felt increasingly boxed in by the ruling party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The government-backed plan called for building a shopping mall inside a reconstruction of a long-demolished army barracks remembered by progressive Turks as a place where, in 1909, religious conservatives sought to stage a coup against reformers.
The plan followed what Zihli and others called a pattern of Erdogan’s Islam-tinged and ever-more authoritarian government. Erdogan had railed against birth control while his ruling party floated curbs on legal abortions. Journalists critical of the government have been arrested. Just last month, Turkey’s parliament passed sweeping new restrictions on alcohol, banning night sales and liquor advertising. In a country that once prided itself on its secular identity, Erdogan suggested ayran, a salty yogurt, replace raki, an anise-flavored alcoholic beverage, as Turkey’s national drink.
As security forces moved in to clear Gezi Park, Zihli — more used to gallery receptions in fashionable Istanbul circles — suddenly found himself engaging in running battles with police. The government response went ignored or underplayed by cowed segments of the Turkish media, leaving word to spread through Facebook, Twitter and other social media, with rage against official repression drawing massive new support for the still-ongoing civil unrest.
Shot by a rubber bullet and doused by water cannons, Zihli kept coming back, feeling more and more empowered. Protesters grew more enraged as Erdogan took to national television, denouncing them as foreign-sponsored rabble-rousers.
“I’m not a very political person, but for the first time in my life, I felt I could understand what was lacking in our democracy,” Zihli said. “Democracy isn’t just about having elections. It’s about respecting the points of view of all your citizens; it’s about freedom and not forcing your will.”
Repeatedly, Erdogan, addressing his faithful, sought to paint the protesters as debauched and morally bankrupt, claiming they had entered a mosque near the protest site and drank alcohol there. The allegations were quickly denied by a mosque official, who was then promptly hauled in for six hours of questioning by Istanbul’s antiterrorism police.
“All Erdogan does every day is prove our point with his actions,” Zihli said. “This is about our love for our country and our love for freedom, and no, we’re not going to stop.”
Tear gas is a symptom of Turkey’s weak democracy
BY: CLAIRE BERLINSKII live blocks from Taksim Square and Gezi Park in Istanbul. I never imagined that Gezi Park would bring what academics call Turkey’s “democratic deficits” to worldwide attention. But I never doubted that something would. My proximity to Taksim ensures that even when I’d rather ignore my journalistic instincts and get an early night’s sleep, I have no choice but to follow the story wherever it leads – because it leads to my apartment. When police attack, the crowds run up my street trailed by cops and tear gas. Like everyone in my neighbourhood, I’m now able to tell exactly what lachrymatory agent they’re using. The tear gas, however, is the symptom. The “democratic deficits” are the disease. The conventional wisdom is that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan does not understand the full meaning of “democracy,” believing that having won several elections, he is now a monarch. Partly correct. But the problems are deeper still, and even Mr. Erdogan’s megalomania is just a symptom of this disease. Consider this: In what kind of democracy does the prime minister decide where to build a shopping mall, particularly when the courts have already halted the project? To grasp the explosion over Gezi Park, you need to understand the details of Turkey’s “democratic deficits.” The most economical way to explain them is how Cem Toker, the secretary of Turkey’s very-minority Liberal Democratic Party, put it to me: “Democracy doesn’t exist in any shape or form here, so there are no problems with democracy in Turkey – kinda like no car, no engine problems.” He is exaggerating only slightly. Yes, Turkey holds regular elections. But the rest of the institutions we associate with “democracy” are so weak that everyone living here knew this car was going to crash. Aengus Collins, a thoughtful observer of Turkey, suggests a deeper way to consider this. He uses Larry Diamond and Leonardo Morlino’s markers of “high quality” democracy: rule of law, participation, competition, vertical accountability, horizontal accountability, freedom, equality and responsiveness. These phrases may sound academic, but to people who daily experience their absence, the path from these terms to tear gas is a straight line. Behind these protests are bitter grievances. Among the most bitter is the dysfunctional Turkish legal system – in particular, the government’s use of it against opponents. Mr. Erdogan has introduced constitutional referendums enabling him to pack the courts with his supporters, and used the courts to shut down hostile media on technical grounds or through punitive taxation. The courts have imprisoned dissenters. Potentially dangerous challengers have fled the country to evade arrest. As for “participation,” this too has been gravely undermined, particularly for the generation that grew up in the wake of the 1980 coup. In Turkey’s very recent past, forms of organization, assembly and protest that healthy participatory democracies require have not only been discouraged, but met with consequences so terrible that parents teach their children that they cannot win, so don’t even try. Anyone who thinks this has changed since Mr. Erdogan came to power is gravely mistaken: Consider the case (one among thousands) of students Ferhat Tüzer and Berna Yılmaz, arrested for holding up a banner that read, “We want free education and we will get it.” They were sentenced to 81/2 years. “Competition” may be the most challenging problem of all. Turkey’s 10-per-cent election threshold ensures that a party with 9.9 per cent of the popular vote receives no representation in the National Assembly. The d’Hondt method, which favours large parties, is used to distribute the seats among the remainder. Finally, Turkey uses a closed-list system: Voters choose a party rather than an individual candidate. This keeps power in the hands of party elites; individual voters can’t choose – or hold to account – the person who represents them. As for freedom, the imprisonment and harassment of journalists is so ubiquitous that they scarcely need the state to censor them any more; they do it themselves. When these protests began, Turkish stations broadcast anything but news about them: They showed documentaries about penguins. “Vertical accountability” describes the way elected leaders are held accountable for decisions by voters; “horizontal accountability” describes the way they are held accountable by legal and constitutional authorities. Again, don’t look for either here. Without press freedom, voters have scant information by which to judge their elected officials. This has led to such deep distrust of journalists that as a friend put to me, “We don’t mind when they put them in jail. We’d mind if they locked up the streetwalkers, though. At least they perform a useful service.” The penultimate refuge of horizontal accountability, flawed though it was, disappeared in a 2010 referendum that changed the composition of the nation’s highest courts, giving Mr. Erdogan the power to handpick loyal jurists. The very last limit on his power was the military. Its senior figures are now in prison, convicted on the basis of evidence that would have been thrown out of anything but a handpicked court. While no proper democracy is mediated by military coup, the electorate had become conditioned to the idea that in extremis, the military would protect them from their mistakes. This promoted the growth of an immature electorate unaccustomed to thinking rigorously about voting and its consequences. It should now be clear why there’s no way to bring Turkey’s corruption under control. Politicians have no motivation to do so. On paper, Turkey’s Law on Political Parties requires political parties to maintain records of all income and expenditure, but it doesn’t require them to publish records. So no one has any idea where the money is coming from or going – although everyone knows it is coming from places it shouldn’t and going to people it oughtn’t. Turkey was no democratic paradise before the rise of the Justice and Development Party (known as the AKP). But the AKP has cynically reduced the idea of democracy to the proposition that democracy is elections and nothing more. Unsurprisingly, many are unsatisfied, particularly because rising incomes have permitted them, for the first time, to consider problems less urgent than merely putting food on the table. Unfortunately, it’s too late. So thoroughly has Mr. Erdogan consolidated his power that the most likely outcome of these protests will be yet another unwanted construction project – the building of new prisons. Waves of arrests are taking place now, even as the world assures itself that the protests are “dying down.” Yes, they are dying down, but in a more literal way than you might realize. Claire Berlinski is a freelance writer who lives in Istanbul. She is the author of There is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters.
Egypt braces for day of rival protests
Egypt was bracing for a day of violence and protest as supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi prepared for mass rallies following a night of clashes that left three people dead.
Rival demonstrators pitched tents and began sit-ins on Saturday to prepare for Sunday's rallies, a year to the day of Morsi's election. The demonstrations were planned after opponents called for Morsi's resignation and snap elections, which prompted pre-emptive demonstrations on Friday by the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies.
Morsi met the interior minister, Mohamed Ibrahim, and defence minister Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi Saturday to discuss plans to secure strategic locations, the state new agency Mena said.
Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel Hamid, reporting from Cairo, said the anxiety was palpable.
"This country has been galvanised, focused on June 30. Listening to both sides, you can expect there to be some trouble. Both sides look at this as a matter of survival - the end game.
"They feel that whoever has the upper hand will be able to lead the country, even though there is no proof that will happen, that is the mindset at the moment. There is a lot of anxiety among Egyptians."
No backdown
She added that while Sunday's protests were the focus, others feared about what will come afterwards
"Everything is uncertain in this country. Many people are not so much worried about tomorrow but what happens next if president Morsi does stay in power - and every indication says that he will.
"There is no sign the opposition is willing to sit down with the president and there is no sign that the president has any concessions. No one is backing off," our correspondent said.
She said it remained to be seen what role the military would take in any trouble. The army has said it would not sit idle and watch Egypt slip into chaos. Now we don't know what threshold the military has, where it will say enough is enough," she added.
The military has not directly intervened despite fatal attacks on Friday. The offices of the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood from which Morsi hails, were set on fire in Alexandria and at Aga in Daqahliya. Its offices were stormed in Beheira.
Two people were killed in Alexandria, including an American student who was stabbed to death while taking pictures of the clashes, and an Egyptian journalist was killed in Suez Canal city.
Morsi's opponents, a collection of leftists, liberals, Christians and also deeply religious Muslims, accuse him of hijacking the revolution and concentrating power in the hands of Islamist groups.
Supporters galvinised
Morsi supporters spent the night outside the Rabaa Al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo's Nasr City neighbourhood, where tens of thousands gathered on Friday to defend the legitimacy of Egypt's first freely elected president.
"It's not just about Morsi, it's about legitimacy and the state. We can't go backwards," said protester Kamal Ahmed Kamel.
Cameron, Zardari talk bilateral ties, Afghanistan
Welcome to Canada, Rimsha Masih!
By Tahir GoraIt's not just the breaking news; it's also the big news now that a persecuted teen girl, Rimsha Masih from Pakistan, has arrived in Canada. Welcome to Canada, Rimsha Masih! A family member of mine spotted her in our neighbourhood and brought it to my attention. I immediately contacted The International Christian Voice Canada, the organization that was working for her safe exit from Pakistan. The organization confirmed her arrival in Canada. She arrived here couple weeks ago, I learnt further. Maybe the organization was not releasing the news in the wake of security issues. But this poor girl made worldwide headlines last August when she got arrested by Islamabad police on accusations of burning pages from Koran. A Pakistani court evidence later that Imam Mosque, Khalid Jadoon Chishti, had allegedly desecrated Koran pages himself and who trapped little Rimsha in blasphemy law. Pakistan's newspaper Dawn reported, "Mohammad Shahzad and Awais Ahmed, said they had urged Chishti (Imam) not to interfere with the papers but he told them it was the only way to expel the Christians from the area." He was subsequently released on bail. Khalid Jadoon Chishti is free in Pakistan now. Other Imams -- and their aggressive mobsters -- are still unleashed in Pakistan as well.
Obama urges House to pass immigration reform by August
Saudi Arabia: No woman in women's talks! Twitter pic amazes the world
China media warns Philippines of 'counterstrike' in South China Sea
Xinjiang riots futile in face of united Chinese power
Susan Rice: Snowden leaks haven't weakened Obama
Obama to meet Mandela's family privately, but not the anti-apartheid icon
President Barack Obama and the first lady will meet privately with Nelson Mandela's family Saturday, but they will not visit the ailing anti-apartheid icon at the hospital.
The president and Michelle Obama will not see him "out of deference to Nelson Mandela's peace and comfort, and the family's wishes," the White House said in a statement.
Obama starts his first full day of activities in South Africa, a nation where hearts are heavy over the poor health of the revered statesman.
His visit to Africa's biggest economy is part of a three-nation trip that started in Senegal, and will end in Tanzania next week.
A meeting between the two would have had historic significance.
Like Obama, Mandela broke through racial barriers to become the first black president of South Africa. The two have met before, but that was prior to Obama's election to the highest political office in the United States. He was a senator at the time.
Mandela retains massive popularity despite his retirement from the presidency in 1999.
He was hospitalized in critical condition with a recurring lung infection three weeks ago, and is clinging to life at a Pretoria hospital.
Though his condition has improved, his health remains delicate, according to his ex-wife, Winnie Mandela. Government spokesman Mac Maharaj has said he remains critical but stable.
As his condition has deteriorated, South Africans have gathered outside the hospital, praying, lighting candles and leaving notes for the man they refer to as "tata," the Xhosa word for father.
Obama, who has hailed him as a hero, had not ruled out a visit to see him. However, he had said it is up to the family.
"I don't need a photo op, and the last thing I want to do is to be in any way obtrusive at a time when the family is concerned with Nelson Mandela's condition," he said Friday.
Mandela became an international figure while enduring 27 years in prison for fighting apartheid, South Africa's system of racial segregation. He was elected the nation's first black president in 1994, four years after he was freed.
Even as he has faded from the spotlight, he remains popular worldwide as an icon of peaceful reconciliation.
"If and when he passes from this place, one thing I think we'll all know is that his legacy is one that will linger on throughout the ages," Obama said.
The trip aims to bolster investment opportunities for the U.S., address development issues such as food security and health, and promote democracy. It comes as China aggressively engages the continent, pouring billions of dollars into it and replacing the United States as Africa's largest trading partner.
Obama's schedule Saturday includes an arrival ceremony in Pretoria and a news conference with his South African counterpart, Jacob Zuma.
A day later, he will visit Robben Island, where Mandela spent a majority of his decades in prison.
Obama to thank his hero Mandela
http://www.timeslive.co.za/
Barack Obama will express "profound gratitude" for Nelson Mandela, as his hero's battle for life adds a emotional edge to his first visit to South Africa as president.Obama said he did not need a photo-op with Mandela following speculation he could visit the anti-apartheid icon and his fellow Nobel peace laureate in the Pretoria hospital where he has been for more than three weeks. Fears for Mandela health, weighing heavily on Obama's three-nation Africa tour, eased slightly Friday, as the 94-year-old's ex-wife Winnie said there had been a "great improvement" though he was still said to be in a critical condition. Obama, who met Mandela once in Washington in 2005, said his primary concern was for the comfort of the ex-South African president and the well-being of his family. "The last thing I want to do is to be in any way obtrusive," Obama said as he flew from Senegal to South Africa, the second leg of a three-nation tour his administration sees a chance to make up for lost time on the continent. "I think that the message we'll want to deliver is not directly to him but to his family, is simply profound gratitude for his leadership all these years," Obama said. Mandela, who turns 95 next month, has been in intensive care for three weeks for a recurrent lung disease dating from his years in apartheid-era prisons. But after taking a turn for the worse last weekend, he has since shown tentative signs of recovery. Supporters have been gathering outside the hospital to offer prayers for the man who negotiated an end to decades of racist white minority rule and went on to become South Africa's first black president. "I came to pray for our father Nelson Mandela. We are wishing for our father to be fine," said Thabo Mahlangu, aged 12, part of a group from a home for abandoned children who travelled to Pretoria. A wall of handwritten prayers for Mandela's recovery has become the focal point for South Africans paying tribute to the father of their nation, with singing and dancing by day and candlelight vigils at night. One message read: "If you can fight prison, you can beat this". Another said: "You are such an incredible inspiration to millions". A visit by Obama to Mandela's former jail cell on Robben Island, off Cape Town, on Sunday in particular is expected to be laden with symbolism. Before then, Obama will try to make sure that the main message of his tour, that the United States sees Africa as poised for explosive growth after years as an aid recipient, is not eclipsed. He will hold talks and a press conference in Pretoria on Saturday with President Jacob Zuma before travelling to Soweto to hold a town hall style conversation with young leaders from all over the African continent. Back in Pretoria Saturday evening, Zuma will throw an official dinner for the US leader. After touring Robben Island Sunday, Obama will visit former Archbishop Desmond Tutu's youth foundation HIV centre before delivering the central speech of his African tour at the University of Cape Town. Obama leaves South Africa Monday, for the final stop on his tour, Tanzania. The US leader will not be greeted warmly by all South Africans. "NObama" demonstrations were held in Pretoria by a coalition of leftist, pro-Palestinian and anti-drone groups. The group was protesting against what it described as the "arrogant, selfish and oppressive foreign policies" of the United States. Mandela has been hospitalised four times since December, mostly for a stubborn lung infection. The man once branded a terrorist by the United States and Britain walked free from prison near Cape Town in 1990. He won South Africa's first fully democratic elections in 1994, forging a path of racial reconciliation during his single term as president, before taking up a new role as a roving elder statesman and leading AIDS campaigner. As he languishes in hospital, his relatives are fighting a legal battle, reportedly over where members of the family should be buried. On Friday, sixteen members of the Mandela family brought an urgent application to a regional court, reportedly to force Mandela's grandson Mandla to return remains of family members to a plot in the ancestral village where Mandela has said he wants to be buried. Mandla, a local chief in nearby Mvezo, had exhumed the remains of three of Mandela's children in Qunu in 2011 and brought them to his village, allegedly without the consent of the rest of the family.
Out-of-school children: Pakistan ranks second in the world
Pakistan ranks the second with the most out-of-school children in the world with only Nigeria ahead of it, said a child rights body on Thursday.
In its annual report titled ‘The state of Pakistan’s children 2012’, the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc) said about one fourth of the 19.75 million children in Pakistan aged five to nine were out of school and factoring in adolescents increased the number to 25 million. Of them, seven million children (aged three to five) had yet to receive primary schooling.
“The country reduced its spending on education from 2.6 per cent to 2.3pc of the GNP (gross national product) over the decade and ranks 113th of the 120 countries on the Education Development Index,” said the Sparc report launched in a hotel here on Thursday.
At the provincial level, Punjab has the highest NER (net enrolment rate) for children in primary schools at 61pc followed by Sindh with 53pc, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 51pc and Balochistan with the lowest at 47pc. Pakistan has an NER of 74.lpc for all age groups enrolled either in primary, secondary or higher education.
Pakistan has the lowest youth literacy rate with 70.7pc. Only 61pc of girls are literate as compared to 79pc boys in the age group of 15-24 years.
Progress has been slowest in low-income countries, especially Pakistan, where only 15pc children received pre-primary education in 2010. It quoted a recent report saying 63pc of children aged three to five years were not receiving any education related to early childhood development.
The country ranks 129th among the 135 countries on the Gender Gap Index 2012 according to the Global Gender Gap Report. Data shows that gender parity for primary schools in Azad Kashmir is close to 1 (0.97). The GPI for Punjab stands at 0.98, in Balochistan it is 0.83 and in Sindh 0.81.
The report said 43pc children born in Pakistan were afflicted with stunting. It was estimated that 21.7pc children were severely and 21.3pc were moderately stunted.
It quoted the United Nations Children's Fund as saying that under five years mortality rate had declined from 122 per 1,000 births in 1990 to 72 per 1,000 births in 2011; far from reaching the assigned target of 52 per 1,000 births as per the millennium development goal.
More than 423,000 children die before reaching their fifth birthday, and almost one in five of these deaths are due to pneumonia.
Pakistan accounted for nearly 30pc of all polio cases recorded worldwide. A total of 142 cases were reported in 2010; 198 cases in 2011. In 2012, the official reports show, 58 cases were recorded, excluding cases in the North and South Waziristan agencies.
It is estimated that 2.1 million cases of measles are reported annually in Pakistan and 21,000 of the reported cases die of complications from the disease. Pneumonia and diarrhoea account for 29pc of deaths among children under five worldwide or more than two million a year; with Pakistan ranking fourth among the countries with the highest prevalence of the disease.
A total of 55 of 96,000 infants, children and adolescents had been identified as HIV positive in Pakistan In 2012, around 5,659 cases of violence against children were reported across Pakistan from January to October 2012. These included 943 murders, 1,170 cases of injuries, 302 of sodomy; 204 of child trafficking, 410 of forced marriages and 164 of Karo-kari (honour killing) incidents, and 260 cases of missing children. Other incidents of violence included 407 cases of sexual assault, 547 torture cases, 323 child suicides, 530 kidnappings and 176 Vani cases.A total of 3,861 cases of child sexual abuse were reported in different parts of the country last year. Most of the cases were reported in Punjab (68pc), followed by Sindh (19pc), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (5pc), Balochistan (3pc) and FATA (3pc).
The report said 197 of the 3,581 victims of drone strikes since 2004 were children.
The participants said children in Pakistan had to cope with a lack of educational opportunities, poor health conditions, a near absence of protection for poor and vulnerable children, miserable conditions in juvenile jails and continued employment of children in hazardous occupations.
Violence against children remains culturally entrenched as children in Pakistan have to cope with physical violence, sexual abuse, trafficking, recruitment in armed conflicts and acid attacks. In the absence of a national database on violence against children, the report relied on secondary sources to give the prevalence of various forms of violence against children.
Massacre in Quetta: The Sacred Connection
By: Qamber Baloch Quetta, capital city of Balochistan, was once again painted in red on 15th June, 2013 with the innocent blood of students of Sardar Bahadur Khan Women University and patients and staff of Bolan Medical College Hospital. The two powerful blasts and indiscriminate firing took the lives of 26 people, mostly female students, leaving many others wounded. These disgusting acts of terrors were proudly claimed by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi( LEJ). The attacks are being seen as most horrifying incidents ever occurred in the history of Balochistan. The victimization of women, who enjoy a great respect in the Baloch society, has made it clear that the security forces along their proxies consider no moral, rules and customs in Balochistan. For the Baloch people the link between LEJ and the sacred secret agencies of Pakistani military establishment is quite clear; however, to fulfill their given task, the Pakistani mainstream media very cleverly diverted the discussion. In this new era of “democratic Pakistan” with a government of enlightened Punjabi nationalists, a single word was not mentioned by the so-called free media of Pakistan about the fact that LEJ and similar religious military organizations being funded, trained and indoctrinated by the military establishment as the first line of defence against their holy war against Western and Indian influences in this region. Obviously various acts of terrorism being carried out by the proxy organizations of the Pakistani military establishment including these very incidents has multiple adverse impacts on Balochistan and the newly elected government of Nawaz Sharif who is supposed to represent the Punjabi nationalists intend to integrate the disintegrated fabrics of the fundamentalist state. The Pakistani army has tremendous stakes in Balochistan. Besides having godlike powers including giving life and death-over millions of the Baloch, the army directly or through its proxy organizations is engaged in a multi-billion drug business from the Baloch coast. It is an open secret that army is running the drug business with Taliban in a 60-40 ratio in which 60% goes to Taliban and army’s’ recruited drug dealers in Balochistan while 40% is to spent on ISI’s internal and external terrorist activities. It has the only meaningful say over the mineral riches of Balochistan estimated to be of trillions of dollars’ worth. It is siphoning off nearly 65% of the official budget of Balochistan province as security expenses and as the expenses for military supervised educational institutions. The military under the notion of country’s safety and security prevails over the civilian government in Balochistan and is involved in massive monitory corruption. This was only to be found a little in a recent revelation of the Auditor General of Pakistan that the FC a paramilitary forces in Balochistan is involved in irregularities worth over Rs: 570 million, let aside the unaudited share it gets from various mega projects running in Balochistan and the drug trafficking. The intellectually suppressed common people of Pakistan might as usual regard these attacks as a western plot or perhaps the will of God, but in reality it is one of the tactics that helps the self-proclaimed guardians of the religious state to extend and expand their presence in Balochistan. This was loudly echoed by the mainstream media news anchors and idealistic youth of Pakistan on online networks to carry out more military operations in Balochistan against the perpetrators without realizing who actually perpetrated it. The blunt statement in the national assembly by the present Interior minister of Pakistan, Chaudhry Nisar Khan might help solve the conundrum who pointedly wondered ‘’how the bombers could mount uninterrupted suicide attacks in a heavily militarised city’’. By organizing these attacks the military has signaled a clear message to Mr. Nawaz Sharif, the sitting Prime Minister of Pakistan who wants to take control of the internal and foreign security policies, that no matter who sits in the government, the vital interests of the army in Balochistan cannot be compromised and the transfer of power to a civilian government should not be taken seriously by any political government in Pakistan. Establishing religious terrorist organization is linked with the superfluous strategy of Pakistan army for safeguarding the ideological and geographical frontiers of the religious state since the independence of East Pakistan as Bangladesh in 1971. However, extending favours to a particular religious sect contributed in marginalizing others and a multitude of sectarian divide flourished which today, the state is apparently unable to control. Establishment of LEJ and other religious militant outfits in Balochistan are in line with the adopted strategy of the army to weaken the Baloch national aspirations with the help of these religious organizations. The Baloch nationalistic aspirations and political mobilization has persistently been dealt with force. Today the Baloch nationalists are not allowed to move and work freely in Balochistan, their public processions are interrupted and their cadre are targeted and killed. On contrary, the LEJ, and other Taliban and Al-Qaida affiliated organizations successfully carry out public processions in the capital city of Pakistan including Balochistan. In their public gathering threaten to instigate Jihad in Balochistan following the resolution tabled in the US congress calling for the right of self-determination for the Baloch. It is not a surprise for the Baloch and other knowledgeable people in Pakistan that LEJ operation in command of Balochistan Usman Saifullah Kurd and his second in command Dawood Badini in 2008 could manage to escape the jail located in high security area of Quetta Military Cantonment where entry requires a pass, and its national leader Malik Ishaq was acquitted by the supreme court of Pakistan in 2011 due to lack of evidences. With the help of these terrorist organizations, the military establishment to a large extent has been successful in militarizing the Baloch society by destroying the social fabric and the secular nature of Baloch. The nationalist circles have openly expressed their concern that the more the new government under Nawaz Sharif strives to take over the security and foreign policies and tries to limit the human right violations in Balochistan, the army will react by enacting more acts of violence and terrorism in Balochistan and other parts of the country. The attacks of SBK and BMC have ruined the lives of many families and have traumatized the wounded and their fellows. It takes a great deal and trail of hardships for families, their women in particular and men in general to make it to the universities. It might discourage many other students from studies who find the university unsafe. In such time of grief, we offer our humble respect to the departed souls and their families and wish the best of health and spirit to the wounded students. Should they ever think of quitting studies, they should look back to their fellows martyred in the quest of education and enlightening Balochistan. It is now upon their shoulders to prevail over the evil and live up the dreams of their fellow students. This should be ingrained in our minds that we are all engulfed in a battle between the good and the evil with no end to the story. The most these students can do is not to give up and live as an example for the others to follow. Humbly speaking the people of Balochistan have seen much of trouble and since they can feel the pain they should sympathize with the victims of evil. In the same city the families of the Baloch missing persons who have been extra judicially abducted by the security forces and have not been given any fair trial needs the sympathy and support of the citizens of Quetta. Should they care, this care will result in love and respect and harmony among the citizens of Quetta. With the posturing of the military establishment in Balochistan through these acts of terror in the face of pressure from the new civilian government, it is the responsibility of all the political and social groups in Balochistan to condemn these attacks irrespective of victims’ ethnicity and religion as that is what keeps us parallel to the ideals and principles of humanity and to stand by each other against the fanatics and their supporters. It is their duty to mobilize the public opinion against these and the coming acts of terror by the military establishment. It is also their duty to highlight this aspect of the bloody conflict in Balochistan to international community. Whether Nawaz Sharif and his team will be able to push the army back to its barracks, dismantle the religious outfits, and bring an end to the human rights abuses in Balochistan as they promised to in their electoral agenda remains to be seen. However, it is clear to every knowledgeable person in Balochistan that arm y will not surrender easily and in the power struggle between the so-called civilian dispensation and the army, the people of Balochistan should be prepared to face the brunt of terrorist activities by the proxy organizations of the army in the coming months.The Baloch Hal
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The Express Tribune
Youth and extremism: Entrenched extremism harder to recognise
Published in The Express Tribune, June 9th, 2013.When it comes to extremism, the youth are the most vulnerable segment in our society, Rab Nawaz, a youth training and social activist, says. Nawaz is also a member of the executive committee at Khudi – an organisation which identifies itself as a “counter extremism social movement”. “The disempowerment of youth has caused confusion and frustration, which are both exploited by ‘extremist’ elements,” says Nawaz. He is one of the many individuals and organisations trying to figure out how the youth understand extremism, how vulnerable they are to it and how it impacts them. Another initiative with a similar objective is Youth Hub against Extremism, which started out as a Facebook page, in June 2012, for discussing extremism among the youth but soon turned into an active platform through which students reached out to their peers. Now the group’s members hold awareness camps at their own and other universities. The group met at training sessions conducted by Bargad – an NGO that focuses on youth related issues. That particular project was titled Tackling Youth Extremism. Sabiha Shaheen, the executive director of Bargad, told The Express Tribune that the need for the project was felt because of the “vague understanding” of the term ‘extremism’. “The youth are witnessing various forms of extremism around them without even being aware of its presence,” says Shaheen. “The physical and emotional challenges, which come with their age, make it trickier to make sense of it.” As part of the project young men and women, between 15 and 29 years of age, studying in 20 schools and universities were asked what they understood by the term and how it could be tackled. A booklet containing essays submitted by the students was published in May in which poverty, unemployment, lack of recreational activities, curriculum taught at schools, identity crisis and frustration were identified as reasons for extremism. Shaheen says that though the issue is staring people in the face there are still many who deny that there is extremism in the society. Noor Imran, 21, a student at the Lahore University of Management Sciences believes that is because extremism is, at times, “deep rooted in our mentality”. For 23-year-old Azeem Siddiqui extremism is “imposing my views on others”. The Bahauddin Zakariya University student has organised a number of awareness sessions on the campus. He says while extremism has been defined mostly in a religious context, socio-political circumstances also play a role. “If I were a child who lost his father in a terrorist attack, I would be more likely to develop an extremist mindset,” he says. Tahira Arooj, another member, agrees. “Extremism is not just about religion… it can be political or cultural.” A Kinnaird College student, she has presented local radio programmes in Punjabi. “When intolerance becomes a part of the culture, it paves way for all kinds of extremism,” says the English literature major. The varied interpretations of extremism don’t surprise Muhammad Shahzad Khan, executive director of Chanan Development Association – an NGO that works for youth development. “It depends on the context,” says Khan. In 2010, says Khan, when the CDA conducted a National Youth Peer Education and Awareness Campaign to Reduce Extremism in Lahore, Karachi, Gilgit, Quetta and Peshawar, he found out how varied the definitions were. Though extremism was largely defined by people in reference to non-Muslims, people in Gilgit defined it in terms of ethnic difference. “The youth in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were of the view that in the absence of educational and recreational opportunities they had no option other than to strive for Jannat (paradise),” says Khan. “Such individuals become easy targets for militants,” he says, crossing the line between extremism and terrorism.